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SeaWorld, Sea Life Park, and Dolphin Quest Are Linked to Dolphin Massacre

Update January 20th, 2014 7 pm EST. The dolphins who were not chosen for captivity are now being slaughtered as the world watches. Please continue to voice your outrage, and consider boycotting the summer Olympics taking place in Japan in 2016.

If I had to pick just one aspect of the Japan dolphin drives that encapsulates all that is wrong with the annual dolphin slaughter, it would not be the fact that it is a function of greed.

Nor would it be the fact that the dolphins are normally just migrating through the area, by no stretch of the imagination are these “Japanese dolphins”. Sadly, the dolphins killed in Taiji may be the same ones that winter along the beaches of other countries where their presence would have been welcome.

It wouldn’t be the fact that the fishermen have the arcane idea that dolphins and whales are competitors for a dwindling fish supply either that is the most abhorrent. And no, not the obvious joy shown by the ignorant fishermen in upsetting the rest of the world.

And dolphins still don’t harm humans…

No, the one thing that takes this slaughter to heartbreak level is that the brutal fishermen, in their cowardice, have chosen a species that never attacks back, allowing the hunters to safely enter the water, their killing knives and skewing implements wielding destruction unopposed.

They don’t do this with sharks. Or rays, swordfish, or barracuda. But these fishermen of Taiji callously swim and wade out with the dolphins knowing that the dolphins won’t harm them, maiming and torturing the one species that is known to save humans in need.

Due to bad press, the fishermen now try to kill dolphins bloodlessly, but it doesn’t work, often resulting in a prolonged death.

A few short days ago, the little white dolphin who activists have named ‘Angel’ was swimming free with her mother and extended pod. Today she is in a tank with a few other calves, their mothers left behind to face the possibility of slaughter unless the Japanese government steps in and puts an end to this barbaric practice.

Is there hope for these dolphins? Yes, given enough public pressure, and if the amusement parks would own up to their complicity in the carnage. The video below explains how these captures are driven by people who make a fortune from it.

SeaWorld claims that it no longer supports the drive fishery, but does nothing to intercede. Sea Life Park in Hawaii still has the whale/dolphin offspring of a false killer whale who came from the Japan captures. Dolphin Quest has two swim-with-dolphin facilities in Hawaii, both built with money from ‘blood dolphins’ caught in Japan.

Please watch this video, you can skip the first minute or two if it is hard to stomach, and still learn how the dolphin slaughter is driven by industry. The people of Japan have been unaware of the situation, but are beginning to protest, bringing hope that this will soon be stopped. Please see this website to learn why these hunts not reflective of the Japanese country as a whole, but instead is reflective of a heartless few.

The hunts for dolphins in Taiji must be stopped, and the captivity industry should be in the forefront of efforts to stop the hunts. Instead, the captivity industry is subsidizing the hunts by paying top dollar for captive dolphins like Angel, while the mother is carted off to the abattoir. They should be ashamed of themselves.

Please help in any way you can! We need your continuing help to end the Taiji dolphin hunts.

WHAT YOU CAN DO:

Contact these leaders and ask them to release the dolphins in Taiji and Angel with his mother:

Note: This is a seattlepi.com reader blog. It is not written or edited by the P-I. The authors are solely responsible for content. E-mail us at newmedia@seattlepi.com if you consider a post inappropriate.